The Delhi Police, which worked itself into more than a pardonable number of lapses when it came to taking action against rapists, mostly had their act together while probing the gangrape of the 23-year-old paramedic in Delhi.

They have nabbed five of the accused and is reportedly hot on the heels of the two absconding. However, a Mail Today report suggests that had the police kept their eyes and ears open and extended their attention of the festering underbelly of Delhi, crimes like these could possibly be avoided.

A slum in Delhi. Reuters.

The report, which profiles the rapists, all residents of the same neighbourhood - Ravi Dass camp, a cluster of slums in RK Puram and just a shout away from one of the poshest parts of the city - suggests how the criminals had already shown tell-tale signs of being serial offenders. However, since policing doesn't extend to the grimiest parts of the city, the offenders roamed freely, also probably with a burgeoning sense of their power, their assumed invincibility. Nobody reported them, they never knew the fear of getting caught.

So much so, that prime accused, bus driver Ram Singh, went back to drive his bus back to its depot after having deserted it the night before. What convinced him to do that? Not a compelling sense of duty surely! The Mail Today report has the answer. Ram Singh, according to the report, was a local thug, one with a reputation of muscling his way into anything. His neighbours avoided run-ins with him as they mostly turned out to be unpleasant and intimidating. His parents had loud brawls everyday and Singh and his brother were always found in the company of other trouble-mongers who would get drunk in their shanty. He even eloped with a mother of three and returned to the neighbourhood after the woman died - apparently of some illness, but no one can be sure.

Understandably, the locals never reported them to the police. Because 'community policing' didn't extend its favours to slums and shanties. And anyone protesting their antics probably could ill-afford police security and such-like.

Pawan and Vinay, the latter a B Com graduate, also returned to their homes after the crime and stayed put there till the police came calling and arrested them. Unless, they can stake claim to extraordinary naivete, there's just one reason why after having committed such a crime, the accused returned to where they could be found easily. And that is the belief that the police would hardly step into their quarters, their part of the city, which is probably conditioned to neither seek help, nor fear the police meddling with them.

The police, presumably, isn't unaware of the breeding grounds of crime in Delhi. However, keeping a tab on it would also include lending their protective responsibilities to their residents too. To steep a price to pay to nip criminals at the bud maybe?